1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-processing device for correcting at least one person area in an image and a method used therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
When photographing a person by using flash, the eyes of the person often become red, which is known as the red-eye phenomenon. Today, since such a person image can be generated, as digital image data, we have various methods for changing the color of a red-eye area into another color. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-125320 discloses one of the methods. Namely, a flesh-color area including a face characteristic is detected, a set of red-eye defects is detected, and color modification is performed for the red-eye-defect area. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-271808 discloses a method for generating a characteristic-amount histogram corresponding to a correction area included in the red-eye area, generating a correction curve based on the minimum value, maximum value, modal, average value, and distribution that are obtained by the histogram, and correcting the saturation and brightness of the correction area according to the correction curve.
Further, video cameras that can perform skin-beautifying processing have been proposed. Once the video camera is set to skin-beautifying mode, the flesh-color area is detected, and skin-beautifying processing is performed for the detected flesh-color area.
However, the above-described technologies have the following problems. For example, when the color of a photograph in which the red-eye (or gold eye) phenomenon occurs is corrected, it is difficult to automatically determine the color of the corrected area to be a suitable color (stored color). Particularly, since the iris color of a pupil under observation changes according to fluctuations in illumination conditions and the race and/or personal characteristic of the object person, the correction result often becomes unnatural only by reducing the saturation and/or brightness of the red-eye area. Therefore, a method and/or a device for reproducing the original and/or suitable pupil color have been sought.
Further, when the skin-beautifying processing is uniquely performed for every flesh-color area, an object having a color similar to the flesh color, that is, the object color that should not be corrected is often subjected to the skin-beautifying processing. Further, the above-described technologies do not allow selecting a specific person from among a plurality of persons shown in a single image and performing the correction for the specific person.